The Real Estate Crisis Hits Home

Did it start when we didn't get a lick of interest the first two months our home was listed for sale?

Or when we got some foot traffic, but no one was interested (and one humdinger said she didn't like the energy flow of our road)?

Or maybe that hardship feeling hit when I called the mortgage lender to inquire about refinancing, and he cheerfully told us our home was "under water."

In fact, bizarrely, we qualify for a HARP loan, a government program to make sure folks like us don't default. I was embarrassed.

We are nowhere near defaulting, but the reason we're refinancing is to lower our payment so that we can at least rent out our house.

But in order to get a number that's simpatico with the local market, we will likely lose about $200 to $300 per month—even with the refi.

I've been pushing so hard, because we have to move (for work, for school for my son).

But maybe I don't have the luxury of saying, "we have to move." Maybe I have the luxury of saying, "You have a job, you have a home, shut up, sit still, he's only in Kindergarten—so count your blessings."

I'm not spoiled, yet I am. For a decade or more, there was no situation you couldn't buy yourself into or out of, thanks to the abundance of credit masquerading as cash.

Now, back down on earth, the laws of gravity and real money apply. And so I sit.